WSCC waiting for the green light to begin construction

KEN GRABOWSKI, Associate Editor

Published
5:09 pm EDT, Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Some preparations had already begun at the back of the Manistee Education building. The project originally was supposed to start in early April before the COVID-19 pandemic halted all construction work. (Ken Grabowski/News Advocate)

Some preparations had already begun at the back of the Manistee Education building. The project originally was supposed to start in early April before the COVID-19 pandemic halted all construction work. (Ken

Some preparations had already begun at the back of the Manistee Education building. The project originally was supposed to start in early April before the COVID-19 pandemic halted all construction work. (Ken Grabowski/News Advocate)

Some preparations had already begun at the back of the Manistee Education building. The project originally was supposed to start in early April before the COVID-19 pandemic halted all construction work. (Ken

MANISTEE — As Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer slowly starts to ease up some of the COVID-19 restrictions, Manistee residents will begin to see activity picking up in terms of construction on River Street.

Construction work at the West Shore Community College Manistee Downtown Education Center in the former Glik's building at 400 River St. is expected to start moving forward in the upcoming weeks. Whitemer is expected to lift the ban on construction May 7. WSCC president Scott Ward said construction manager the Christman Company and architect Kendra Thompson are excited about getting the process started.

"I have to applaud both the Christman Company and Kendra Thompson through all of this as they have had to keep adjusting and updating things in working with college staff and subcontractors," said Ward.

He said some activity may start up as early as next week.

"Based on that what we anticipate is possibly even a little before that May 7, but within the orders is some safety aspects are going to happen," said Ward. "We might see a little public safety work being done in securing the area for pedestrians and such. Some of that could be as early as next week because it takes a little time to gear up from the May 7 release to work."

Ward said they are looking at possibly starting some work the week of May 18, but that will not be visible construction work — it will be more prep-type work.

"Possibly the next week after that — which would be the last week of May or the first of June — we will see actual demolition and construction taking place," he said. "We also have to take under consideration that some of our contractors have to finish the work they were pulled off when the shutdown was put in place in April before we were going to originally start on April 7."

In May 2019, college board members took action to purchase the building for $470,000. Plans call for them to put $2.2 million of the renovation process from their own funds, and they also received $1 million from an anonymous donor to cover the balance of the project.

The building will have a multi-use as it will host WSCC classes and another component to the project is the Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce and Networks Northwest (Michigan Works!) agreed to be tenants in the building making it a collaboration between education, economic development and community use.

Ward said he is keeping his fingers crossed and is optimistic the work can start in May.

"Our region has been a fairly safe region (concerning COVID-19) and I have total confidence in Christman as everything will be done within guidelines, and we will be able to proceed in a safe manner," he said. "It is going to be interesting to see how everyone adjusts (to working under these conditions)."

Ward said initial plans had called for the building to be ready for the start of the fall semester at the college. However the delay due to COVID-19 might not make that possible.

"This will certainly delay it and I feel sorry for the K-12 districts who have building projects going on as they are in a little more tighter timeframe than us, but we are all in the same situation," said Ward.